War for Divinity
by wolfdude16
Summary: Several of the villains of Smash World have gathered their armies. Their goal, to obtain the power of the gods that watch over their world. They're going to war with the heroes, the government, and even eachother. Will our heroes stop them, or is this truly the end?


Good day to all of you. My name is Wolfdude16, and I am here to present you with this Fanfiction.

Before you start reading, you should know that this fic does not take place in any specific video game universe. It takes place in a combination of these worlds, like the Subspace Emissary from Super Smash Bros Brawl. Please note that there will be characters from the series that the smashers come from, so if you see a character that you don't recognize, then just bare with me. Also the storyline of this story may be different from the games' storylines, so not everything will be as you remember it happening in the games.

Also, this story contains OCs. If you are allergic to characters created by me, then stop reading now.

This story also contains blood, nothing too over-the-top bloody, but if you don't like blood at all, then you have been warned.

War for Divinity

Chapter One: The War Begins

Smash City, the capital city of the World of Smash. It's a bustling city full of many people going through their everyday lives. The streets were crowded with people of all kinds of species from the different sectors of the world. Today was an especially busy day for one very important reason.

Today was the final day of the 4th annual Super Smash Bros Tournament. This was the biggest competition of fighting in all of Smash World. Experienced fighters come from all over the world to compete in this tourney. Even Famous heroes, such as Mario, Link, and Sonic. Of course, Link wasn't attending this year due to some trouble going on in Hyrule.

Everyone was busy. Many were hurrying to the arena to catch the last match, the merchants were busy serving snacks and selling smasher-related merchandise to the rushing crowd members.

This year, the two finalists were Meta-knight, the winner of last year's tourney, and Shadow the hedgehog, a new fighter from the Mobius sector of Smash World. The battle was taking place on a large square-shaped arena. There were large sets of bleachers surrounding the concrete arena. These bleachers were crowded with spectators. Most of the crowd were cheering for Meta-knight, others were cheering for Shadow, while others were just cheering for the fighting in general.

The rules of the match were simple. First one to fall unconscious or fall out of the arena is the loser.

Meta-knight flew into the air to avoid a spin dash from Shadow. Shadow was very similar to Sonic in appearance, except his fur was black with red streaks, and the spikes on is head were pointed upward slightly. He also possesses similar abilities to Sonic. His jet boots allowed him to run, or 'skate', at supersonic speed.

Despite being similar to Sonic in many ways, Shadow was also very different from Sonic. For one thing, Shadow has the ability to create energy attacks and warp using the power of chaos. The biggest difference between him and Sonic was their personality. Shadow took fighting seriously. He didn't joke around.

Meta-knight swooped down and started slashing at Shadow. The hedgehog skillfully avoided the strikes until he got hit by a lucky strike to his torso. He was knocked back several feet, but he wasn't wounded.

Each Super Smash Bros tourney was watched over from the heavens by Master Hand and Crazy Hand, the gods of creation and destruction. Their great magic prevented the fighters from receiving wounds. However, this only takes affect during the matches. Once the tourney ended, the spell would wear off.

Meta-knight flung his dimensional cape around himself and disappeared. He reappeared behind Shadow, who jumped out of the way to avoid another sword swipe. "Chaos Spear!" He created several spears of yellow chaos energy and fired them at his opponent. Instead of moving out of the way, Meta-knight struck out with several swift, calculating slashes of his Galaxia blade. He destroyed all of the spears before they made contact, but he was then knocked to the side by Shadow's spin dash attack.

The star-warrior quickly got back on his feet. "You are truly a worthy foe."

Shadow just crossed his arms. "Hmph. Whether you see me as worthy or not is irrelevant. I'm here to win, not prove myself to some masked puffball with a sword."

"Perhaps, but remember, you must defeat this 'masked puffball' before you are declared the winner." With that said, he charged at shadow using his drill rush attack. The hedgehog responded by using his spin dash again. The two attacks clashed for a moment before they were both knocked back by the force of the other.

(Meanwhile)

Two figures were standing in a dark room. There was not enough light to clearly see their features, however, both of them seemed to be fairly short..

"Sir, shall we proceed with the plan?" One of them asked.

"No, Dad said to wait until a winner was decided. If we attack now, the magic protecting the fighters will still be in effect."

"So, we attack when the competition is over?"

"You'll attack once I give the signal. That's all you need to know."

"Yes sir."

(Back at the tournament)

Meta-knight flew into the air to avoid more chaos spears from Shadow. He started gathering energy into his sword while avoiding more spears. Once he gathered enough energy, he released it in a horizontal strike. A blade of pure energy flew straight towards Shadow.

The hedgehog jumped into the air. He used his homing attack to spin dash towards Meta-knight in midair. The star warrior disappeared using his dimensional cape again before he made contact. He reappeared behind Shadow while he was still in the air.

"Chaos Control!" Shadow disappeared in a flash of light before Meta-knight could strike him again. He appeared above the star warrior and kicked him to the ground. Meta-knight moved out of the way just in time to avoid another spin dash.

Both fighters were breathing heavily now. "I must end this now." Meta-knight said to himself. Then he spoke louder. "Prepare yourself Shadow! Ultra Mach Tornado!" The star-warrior spun around in circles like he would for his usual Mach Tornado attack, except this time, the tornado started growing bigger and bigger. The cyclone was sucking in everything around it.

Shadow tried to escape the tornado, but his attempts were in vain. Then he had an idea. "Chaos Control!" He disappeared from sight again. He reappeared above the large cyclone. He dove straight into the center while using his spin dash. The inside of the tornado had no wind in it, therefore, Shadow had a clear path to his target. He slammed right into Meta-knight's head. The powerful attack disrupted his spinning motion and sent him spiraling out of control. He landed in the area between the arena and the bleachers.

"Meta-knight is out of the ring!" The announcer cried out. "Shadow the hedgehog is the winner of this year's Super Smash Bros tournament!"

Meta-knight climbed back into the arena. "You fought well. You are truly a skilled fighter."

"Like I said before, my goal was to win, not earn your approval. Now, where's the prize I was promised?"

Princess Peach, the master of ceremonies for the competition, walked up to him. Zelda would've attended too, but the trouble going on in Hyrule kept her from attending. She held out a briefcase to him. "Congratulations on winning the tournament. Here's your prize money of one million dollars."

Shadow took the brief case in one hand, then he held out his other hand. "And the other reward?"

"Oh, of course! Here you go, the Chaos Emerald, as promised." She held out a glowing red emerald. This Chaos Emerald was given to her by the city council to present to the winner of the tourney. Shadow took it eagerly.

Peach started speaking through a microphone. "Well folks, I hope you all enjoyed this year's Super Smash Bros tournament! Be sure to look up at the sky tonight, because we'll be hosting a fireworks show to celebrate another successful year!"

Then, a voice echoed throughout the city. "Why don't we skip the waiting and have the fireworks now?" The crowd looked all around the area, but no one could find the source of the voice. Then, someone shouted out, "Up there!"

Everyone looked into the sky, what they saw shocked them. The sky was full of huge, flying…pirate ships? The flag on each ship had a red silhouette of Bowser's face on it. Each ship also had Bowser's head as its figurehead.

Peach put her hand on her face. "Not this again."

A figure stood on the front of the largest ship. He looked like a more childish version of Bowser. He spoke into his own microphone. "I, Bowser Junior, hereby claim this city in the name of my dad, the great King Bowser! Anyone who resists will be dealt with swiftly and brutally."

Meta-knight turned to face Shadow. "We must stop them!"

"Sorry, but now that I have the Chaos Emerald, I have no more business here. You can take them on yourself for all I care." He held up his emerald and used its power to warp out of the city.

"I take back what I said about you being worthy." He ran off to fight the threat himself, despite being weakened from his fight.

"This isn't good." Peach looked at the panicking crowd in front of her. She started speaking into the microphone again. "Everyone, stay calm! Exit the area in a quick and orderly fashion. Try to get somewhere indoors. The smashers and the government troops will take care of this threat!" After she said this, several Koopa Troopas with wings came down from above and surrounded her.

"Princess Peach, we are here to capture you!" One of them shouted. He flew forward to grab her, but he was swiftly knocked aside with a frying pan.

"Sorry, but I'm not the defenseless little girl I used to be." She knocked another one out of the air with her frying pan.

"Get her!" They all swooped in to capture her. She dodged and slammed each Koopa that flew by until none were left standing. Peach thought she was safe for now, so she started walking towards the exit of the stadium. Before she could reach it however, a magical barrier came up around the arena.

"Hehehe. There's no escape for you now, princess!" She looked up to see four Koopas wearing sets of blue robes and wizard hats and flying on broomsticks.

"Magikoopas.' She muttered under her breath. Magikoopas are Koopas that possess magical powers. They're a great deal more powerful than normal Koopa Troopas. "So tell me, just what is Bowser after this time?"

"That's classified. All you need to know is that the great King Bowser is doing something incredibly evil!" One of them responded.

"I can tell that much. So, are you going to capture me, or just float around and praise Bowser?" Taunted the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom.

"Shut up!" One of them raised their wands and fired a blast of magical rainbow-colored energy at Peach. She pulled out her tennis racket and swatted it right back at him. The magical blast exploded on contact with him, but instead of blasting him out of the sky, it simply wrapped him up in magical bindings. He lost his balance and fell off of his broomstick.

The other three Magikoopas started circling her on their broomsticks. She tried to hit them with her frying pan, but they were too fast. Before she knew it, she was wrapped in magical bindings. "Hey! Let me go!"

"Not a chance, princess. You're coming back to the castle with u-ack!" He was cut off by a fireball knocking him to the ground.

"It's him!" One of the remaining two Magikoopas shouted before he too was silenced by a fireball. The last Magikoopa tried to fire a blast of magical energy at the adversary, but the attack was easily dodged and he was knocked down by a boot to the face.

"Are you-a okay Peach?"

"Yes, I'm fine Mario." Mario, the world-renowned hero of the Mushroom Kingdom, helped Peach to her feet. Now that the Magikoopas were defeated, the magic bindings on Peach disappeared, as well as the barrier surrounding the arena. "Thank-you…again."

"It was-a nothing Peach. It's-a my duty as a citizen of the-a Mushroom Kingdom to protect you."

"I know, but still…you shouldn't have to save me every time I'm not able to defend myself."

"You're-a safe now, so it-a doesn't matter. Right-a now, we need to help the people."

Peach nodded her head. "You're right. Let's get going!"

(Somewhere else in the city)

Pikachu used his Thunderbolt attack to electrocute all of the Koopas surrounding him. Then he started running down the street again. Most of the citizens had taken cover indoors, so there weren't very many people in the streets.

Pikachu used Quick attack to increase his speed enough to catch up with his target, one of the airships that was flying closer to the ground than the others. Once he got close to it, The Koopa that was in command of it gave the order to fire. The airship turned so that the starboard(right) side was facing Pikachu. The cannons on the side of the ship fired several missile-like projectiles with faces on them. These 'Bullet Bills' flew through the air and curved towards their target.

Pikachu zipped left and right using Quick attack to avoid the missiles. They all exploded on contact with the ground. The mouse pokemon ran underneath the airship. He gathered up large amounts of electricity inside himself and then used Volt tackle to charge straight upwards. He shot straight through the bottom of the airship and landed on deck.

The commander of this ship was a Hammer Bro, a Koopa that used a hammer in battle. He also wore a green helmet to show his rank. "Koopa clan, attack! In the name of the great King Bowser!"

The Koopas on board charged towards the intruder. Pikachu's tail turned into a shiny silver color as he used his Iron Tail attack. He Struck down every Koopa on deck with his tail. He jumped out of the way to avoid a hammer that was thrown by the Hammer Bro. Pikachu avoided several more hammers before he defeated his enemy using Thunderbolt.

Once the crew was defeated, Pikachu started steering the flying ship towards another airship. His airship crashed into another one. Pikachu jumped off and landed on top of a building. Both ships went crashing into the ground.

Pikachu was contemplating what to do next when Kirby came flying around on his warp star. "Are you okay Pikachu?"

"Yeah, I'm fine Kirby. How many airships have you taken down?"

"Um, two or three I think."

"Should we take down the flagship?"

"I saw Meta-knight heading there. I think he can take care of things there."

"How many smashers are still in the city?"

"Only a dozen or so. A lot of them didn't attend the tourney this year, and most of the ones that did attend went home already."

"Then I guess we have to pick up the slack. Do you think you could give me a lift?"

"Sure. Hop on!" Pikachu jumped on the warp star and they both headed off to take down more airships.

(On the flagship)

Meta-knight dodged to the side to avoid the massive arm slamming down on him. The Koopa he was fighting was much bigger than most. He stood nearly five feet tall, which was very tall for a Koopa, and more than twice as tall as Meta-knight. The Koopa actually reminded him of Donkey Kong.

The Giant Koopa started spinning around with his arms stretched out in an attempt to hit Meta-knight._ 'Just like Donkey Kong indeed.'_ He used his dimensional cape to vanish again. The Koopa kept spinning until he got dizzy and started wobbling in place. Meta-knight reappeared and kicked him in the face. He rolled backwards and slammed into the mast.

"You've interfered enough!" Bowser Jr called out from the crow's nest. He jumped down to the deck and faced Meta-knight. He was wielding what looked like a big paintbrush. He was also wearing a blue bandana around his neck. "I'm about to unleash my full power on you!" He lifted the bandana over his face like a mask. As soon as he put it on, his body turned into a shadowy blue color. Then his body shifted until it looked like a blue silhouette of Mario.

Bowser Jr charged forward at a speed that he could never pull off in his normal form. His paintbrush clashed with Meta-knight's Galaxia. They clashed several more times before Meta-knight flew into the air. He started charging energy for another sword beam.

Bowser Jr used his magic paintbrush to rapidly draw a sloppy circle in the ground. He jumped into the circle and disappeared. Meta-knight stopped charging energy into his sword. "Where did he go?" Another circle of magic paint appeared on the side of the crow's nest. Bowser Jr popped out of it and kicked Meta-knight back down to the deck. While in his shadow Mario form, Bowser Jr possessed all of the strength and acrobatic abilities of Mario.

He used his magic paintbrush to throw a blob of green and yellow goop at Meta-knight while he was down. The goop electrocuted the star-warrior on contact. He used his mach tornado to get the gooey substance off of himself. When he stopped spinning, he was breathing heavily. "I can't keep this up anymore."

Bowser Jr Charged forward to deliver the finishing blow, but he was stopped halfway by a glowing arrow of energy. He jumped out of the way to avoid several more arrows. He shifted back into his normal form and removed the bandana from his face. "Who are you?!"

"My name is Pit, servant of the goddess of light, Lady Palutena!" The angel responded. He was currently flying to the side of the flagship, close enough so that the ship's cannons couldn't fire at him, but far away enough that Bowser Jr couldn't reach him. The glowing energy around his wings were the only thing keeping him from falling.

Bowser Jr started growling at him. "Get over here and fight fair!"

Pit almost face-faulted in the air. "Fair? You're attacking the city with an armada of flying battleships! What's fair about that?!"

"Shut up and fight me!" He pulled a bob-bomb out from who-knows-where and threw it at Pit. The angel fired an arrow at it, destroying it in midair. Bowser Jr pulled out more bob-bombs and continued to throw them at Pit, who dodged or destroyed every one of them.

"You're going to have to do better than that to beat me!" Pit taunted.

"Will this do?" A voice said. The next thing Pit knew, his arms, legs, and wings were tied up in magical bindings.

"Hey! What is this?" He shouted. He started falling towards the ground, but his leg was grabbed by a Magikoopa. The Koopa wizard brought him on deck and threw him to the ground.

"Good work Kamek! We'll take this one with us. What about that one?" Bowser Jr pointed at Meta-knight, who was still trying to recover his strength.

Kamek, the head of the Magikoopa clan and Bowser's second in command, contemplated the options. "He doesn't seem to have any connection to the gods, so I see no reason in keeping him. Shall I dispose of him my prince?"

Bowser Jr nodded his head. "Yeah. I'll take this one below deck. Did you complete your mission?"

"Of course your highness."

"Then tell the remaining airships to pull back. The show is over, for now."

Kamek raised his golden scepter and fired a blast of magical energy at Meta-knight. The star-warrior was blasted off the deck and fell towards the city below. He lost consciousness as he was falling.

(Several hours later)

Meta-knight slowly awoke to the sound of the television.

"Thanks to the heroic efforts of the Smash Bros fighters, the air strike led by Bowser's son was pushed back. So far, there haven't been any reported fatalities. However, during the attack, it seems Bowser's second in command, Kamek, stole a Chaos Emerald from the local museum. It is believed that the airstrike may have simply been a diversion to steal the gem, but the reason for this theft remains unknown. We have been informed by the council that the remaining Chaos Emeralds will be moved to a Safe location to prevent this event from happening again." The news reporter said.

"Stole a Chaos Emerald?" Meta-knight muttered to himself. The other occupants of the room must have heard him because they were now crowding around him.

"Meta-knight! Are you alright?" Peach asked.

"That was a nasty fall. Maybe you should rest a bit more." Young Link suggested. (From this point on, Young Link will be called Rinku.)

"I'm fine. I've been through far worse than this. What did that reporter say about a Chaos Emerald?"

"While Bowser Jr was causing havoc, Kamek stole the thing from the museum." Rinku said. "I was there when it happened. He was going on about how he was taking it in the name of the 'great King Bowser'. It's a good thing Bowser likes to show off so much, otherwise the old Koopa could've taken it without anyone knowing."

"What I'm confused about is why Bowser would want one of them to begin with. I mean, isn't it usually Dr Eggman who's always after them?" Pikachu asked.

"Hey Meta-knight, do you know what happened to Pit? I saw him go up to help you out." Kirby asked.

"They captured him." He replied simply.

"What?!" The others shouted.

"Why?" Asked Peach.

"I'm not sure, but before I was thrown off the ship, Kamek said something about not needing me because I 'didn't have a connection with the gods."

Peach started rubbing her chin. "The gods…that might explain it."

"What-a is it Peach?" Mario asked.

"Well, when those Koopas tried to capture me, I thought it was because of Bowser's usual obsession over me, but maybe it was because of my connection with the gods that watch over the Mushroom Kingdom. I have a connection with them because I'm the heir to the throne. The Chaos Emeralds are said to have been created by the gods, so they would also have a strong connection to them."

"Those guys tried to catch me too." Rinku said. "Maybe because I'm one of the goddesses' chosen heroes? And Pit serves directly under the goddess of light, Palutena, so he would have the strongest connection out of all of us. Does Bowser's plan have something to do with the gods?"

"Where's your Chaos Emerald Meta-knight?" Asked Pikachu. "You won one in last year's tourney, right?"

The star-warrior nodded. "I did, but I gave it to Lucario for safe-keeping. I should probably go check on him to make sure it's okay."

"I'll go with you!" Rinku exclaimed. "Somebody needs to watch your back you know!"

Pikachu spoke up again. "Me too! You're going to need someone to guide you through the pokemon countries."

Meta-knight nodded his head. "Very well. You two may accompany me." He turned towards Mario, Kirby, and Peach. "You three should go to Hyrule. There's been much trouble reported in that area. For all we know, what happened here could be happening over there too. Head to Hyrule castle and see if Princess Zelda is safe. Her connection to the gods is almost as strong as Pit's, if not stronger."

Peach nodded. "Alright, we'll go check on her." Meta-knight was not usually someone you wanted to argue with. After all, he's been around for hundreds of years. He has vast knowledge and wisdom, so if he says Zelda could be in trouble, then there's no reason to argue with him.

"Alright. We'll leave in the morning. For now, let's all get some sleep."

(Meanwhile)

Samus Aran was walking down a hallway in a government facility towards the outskirts of Smash City. She was there working as a security guard to protect the remaining Chaos Emeralds from intruders until they could be moved to a safer location. She had been called there on short notice by the council along with several other fighters that were nearby, including the StarFox team and Solid Snake. It was a pretty boring job, but it paid the bills, so she couldn't complain.

The bounty hunter let out a sigh. "Still, I wish I could've been given a more interesting job." Just then, she heard a loud bang. The ground around her shook for a few seconds before it became stable again. "What was that?!"

She heard the familiar ringing noise of her communicator and answered it. "Samus Aran, an explosive was set off in sector 4. Go investigate it immediately."

"Yes sir!" Samus's Power suit materialized around her body as she ran down the hall to the sector. She ran through a door that led into a large warehouse-like room with large crates and such in it. She looked around to make sure the area was secure before moving on. Unbeknownst to her, she was being watched from above.

"This is just too easy." A figure jumped down from the ceiling and landed perfectly on the ground. The intruder was a female, anthropomorphic bat. The only fur on her body was the white fur/hair on her head. Her large bat wings were pitch-black while the rest of her body was tan. She wore white elbow-length glove, similar white knee-high boots, and a jumpsuit that only covered the chest down. A big pink heart-shaped breastplate covered her chest. Like most anthropomorphic animals from the Mobius sector, she only stood a few inches taller than three feet. "One little explosive was enough to draw all their attention away from the treasure they were guarding."

She walked through the door that Samus came out of while musing to herself. "The security guards in this place sure are gullible. Fighting experience doesn't mean much when they get outsmarted so easily. Now, where are those Emeralds?"

She walked up to a door and hacked the security code. The door opened and she walked in and immediately saw what she was searching for. "Ah! There you are!" She walked up to one of four metal pedestals in the room. Each one had a glass dome covering it and inside each dome was one of the Chaos Emeralds.

She looked down at the keyboard sticking out of the pedestal. "A passcode to open glass? They really need to raise the security in this place." She hit the dome with a diagonal kick that cut the glass clean in half. She caught the top half before it fell to the ground. She placed it softly on the ground and then carefully removed the Emerald from the case,being especially careful not to activate any alarms by accident. "That was easy. Now for the other three."

"Not so fast!" A kunai knife stuck itself in the ground right in front of the thief.

"Who's there?!" She looked around, but she didn't see anyone else in the room with her.

"My name is Espio. I've been hired by the government to guard the Chaos Emeralds. Given my ninja skills and my ability to become invisible, I'm the perfect man for the job. Now that I've given you my name, why don't you give me yours?"

"I'm Rouge the bat. The greatest thief the world's ever known, and if you know what's good for you, you won't get between me and my emeralds!"

"You're very skilled, that's for sure, but what kind of thief robs a place right after it was robbed? Surely you must've known the security would be higher."

"Actually, stealing from someone that's just been stolen from is easier, because they don't expect it to happen again so soon. Now are you going to show yourself or are you going to leave little old me all alone?" She asked in a mock-cutesy voice.

A figure faded into existence a few feet in front of Rouge. Now that he was visible, Rouge could see that he was a Mobian, like her, except Espio was a chameleon, not a bat. He had purple scales, a yellow horn on his face, and a long curled-up tail behind him. "You'd better drop the emerald and leave now, or I'll be forced to take you into custody."

"No way am I leaving here without my emerald!" She charged forward and aimed a kick at Espio, who swiftly dodged it. He turned invisible before the batgirl could launch anymore attacks at him. "Drat! Where did he go now?"

She dodged to the side to avoid several shuriken. The throwing stars embedded themselves in the wall behind her and exploded. Rouge was thrown forward from the explosion, but she was able to land on her feet. Unfortunately for her, she was soon knocked off her feet by an invisible kick to her back. She flipped back to her feet and into the air before more shuriken struck the ground where she had been a second before. She flew around the room, kicking at the air in a futile attempt to strike her foe. She was knocked into the nearby wall by another invisible kick. "Give it up. You can't fight what you can't see."

Suddenly, a smile crept it's way onto Rouge's face. "Espio, I have a question for you. Do you know why bats are able to navigate so easily in the dark?"

"How they can navigate in the dark? That would because…oh no."

"That's right." Suddenly, Rouge rushed forward and kicked what appeared to be empty space. There was a loud bang and a few seconds later, Espio faded into existence in front of the wall on the other side of the room. He was clutching his stomach in pain. "The reason we can find our way in the dark is because of our echolocation. The sound waves I emit bounce off everything in this room, including you. My ears pick up these sound waves as they come back to me. From there, I can calculate exactly where you are faster then you can say 'ouch'."

_'This isn't good.'_ Thought Espio. _'First I failed to win the prize money in the Tournament, and now this batgirl might get away with the items I'm getting paid to protect. If I fail this job, I'll never hear the end of it from Vector and Charmy. I have to do something, quick. There is THAT technique, but I haven't perfected it yet.'_ He watched as Rouge slowly made her way towards another Chaos Emerald. "Looks like I have no choice. Hidden Ninja Skill: Shadow Clone!" (Yes, I got this idea from Naruto)

Espio's shadow started to shift, then a piece of it separated itself from the rest and began to take shape. A figure rose out of the shadow. At first, it looked like a black silhouette of Espio himself, then it gain color and it looked like an exact copy of the real thing. Espio and his clone glanced at each other. They nodded their heads simultaneously and charged forward.

Rouge was too busy staring at the Chaos Emerald to notice what had happened. She just barely managed to avoid the frontal assault of the Espio clone, but she was unable to avoid the jump-kick from the real one. Rouge had to do a double-take to make sure she was seeing straight. "Two of you? I must be seeing things."

"Afraid not." One of them replied. "This is my Shadow Clone Technique." Said the other. "Can you tell which of us is the real Espio?" They both said at once.

"It doesn't matter how many of you there are, because zero plus zero is still zero." She said a mocking tone. She ran forward and tried to kick both of them, but they jumped out of the way and turned invisible. "I told you, turning invisible is a waste of time!" She kicked one of the invisible ninjas, but she stopped in her tracks as she felt something cold and hard penetrate her shoulder. She looked to her right to see one of the Espio's stabbing her arm with a kunai. She saw a trickle of blood run down her arm.

Espio removed the knife from her shoulder and stepped back as she clutched her arm in pain. "I told you, I'm not letting you leave with those Emeralds." Espio's clone faded into existence for a moment, only to turn back into a shadow and fade away. Espio felt a large amount of his strength leave him._ 'That technique took more out of me then I thought it would. I'd better resolve this quickly.'_ "You're too weak to fight you should hand over the emerald and leave while you still can."

"I've had just about enough of you!" Rouge tried to kick at him again, but it was much clumsier than her previous attacks. "Who do you think you are? I'm not going to listen to some purple lizard!"

Even though Rouge's attacks were slower now, so was Espio's dodging. Eventually, Rouge got in a lucky strike that sent the ninja tumbling into the wall again. She was going to go in for the final strike, but she heard a voice shout out to her. "Don't take another step!"

She turned to her left to find Samus pointing her arm cannon at her. The weapon was glowing brightly, signifying that it was at full charge. "This just isn't my day is it?" Rouge muttered to herself. She tried to fly over Samus and to the exit, but the bounty hunter fired her full-charged plasma blast at her. She dodged the blast in midair. It sailed past her and impacted on the ceiling, leaving a large hole in it.

"Damn!" Samus cursed under her breath.

Rouge flew towards the hole, still clutching her shoulder to prevent blood-loss. "I'm out of here. These emeralds aren't worth the trouble, even for me." She flew out of the hole in the ceiling and into the night sky.

Samus's power-suit dematerialized as she walked over to Espio to check his wounds. "Looks like we drove her off."

"Maybe, but she got away with one of the Chaos Emeralds. My mission is a complete failure."

"Don't put yourself down like that. If it wasn't for you, that bat would have three more of them in her pockets. When we report this to our employer, I'll vouch that your mission was a success." She reassured.

"Thank you Samus. You're too kind, but that doesn't change the fact that I lost to her in combat. If you hadn't shown up, I'd probably be taking a dirt nap. I need to get stronger somehow."

"I'm sure you'll find a way, but let's think about that later. What was she after? Do you think she was sent here by Bowser to steal the remaining emeralds?"

"No. If he wanted all of the emeralds, he would have had his son and Kamek steal them all earlier. He stole one without any trouble at all. I think Rouge was sent here by someone else, someone who's working against Bowser for his or her own evil plans."

"What are you saying Espio?"

"I'm saying that a war is about to start, and if we don't prepare, we'll be wiped out in the crossfire."

End of Chapter

Thank you all for reading chapter one. Please review and I will have the next chapter up sometime soon.


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